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Going to a rehab center can be intimidating. It’s an entirely new area for most people, and you might worry that you might not receive quality treatment. Fortunately, there are many treatment options on top of traditional detox, inpatient treatment, outpatient care, etc., and these can supplement your addiction recovery care and improve your odds of achieving long-term sobriety.
Alternative treatments like recreational therapy (RT) or therapeutic recreation are becoming a more common treatment option for drug and alcohol addiction. Reputable rehab centers now offer these supplement therapies, because evidence increasingly shows that RT promotes long-term recovery in people with substance use disorder and lowers the likelihood of relapse.
Recreational therapists facilitate recreation activities that also help patients develop skills to combat alcohol and drug addiction. Though they are supposed to be fun, these sessions are still goal-oriented and have a lot of the same objectives as standard group therapy.
Recreational therapy can help promote self-esteem, communication skills, teamwork, and other valuable real-world skills. Under the direction of a skilled recreational therapist, the patient can open up in a comfortable setting and start to better understand themself.
RT is often used in the treatment of trauma, eating disorders, behavior disorders, anger management, grief and loss recovery, and substance abuse.
The goal of RT is to contribute to a person’s overall wellbeing by using activities that simulate real-world events and interactions. Additional benefits of RT include:
One of the more challenging aspects of long-term addiction recovery is changing your lifestyle and what you consider “fun.” After all, if your life used to revolve around drugs and alcohol, you’ll need new hobbies to replace your addiction. At The Woods at Parkside, we offer daily recreational therapy and music therapy to help our patients find new hobbies that are beneficial to their long-term recovery and assist in a smooth transition into a sober life. We currently offer the following types of recreational therapy:
You may have noticed that many of our recreational activities are physical. That’s because physical activity can improve both physical and mental health, especially for people going through addiction recovery.
It is common for people going through recovery to also suffer from co-occurring mental disorders, like depression and anxiety, in addition to addiction. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2018, 9.2 million American adults reported being diagnosed with both mental illness and a substance use disorder. However, exercise and other forms of RT could offer a solution to these millions of Americans.
When you exercise, your brain releases five major chemicals that have positive effects on mental health disorders. By helping to minimize the effects of mental illness, these chemicals also help patients stay in recovery.
Recreational therapy for addiction is a remarkably effective treatment modality. When paired with traditional addiction treatment programs, recreational therapy can make a substantial difference in patient wellness following treatment. If you have any questions about our recreational therapy or other programs, please fill out this contact form or call our admissions specialists at 614-471-2552.